If you’re looking for an absorbing novel that feels at once classic and modern, this is for you. The novel unfolds over the span of 50 years and it’s fascinating to watch these characters change, fall apart, and come together again.

She’s said that Commonwealth was partly based on her own childhood experience, and it has a realistic, lived-in feeling that makes you feel like you’re reading about the lives of people you know. It starts with another wonderful party scene-this time a boozy christening party that kicks off an affair and leads to two divorces, a newly blended family, and a cross-country move. This is my favorite of Patchett’s novels. (And she’s really good at writing parties!) It’s beautifully written, intense, and moving.

I suggest starting with Bel Canto because it displays Patchett’s talent for juggling multiple character arcs and complicated relationships. A standoff develops in which everyone placed in this unusual, tense situation discovers more about themselves and one another. But when members of a terrorist group crash the party, mistakenly believing the country’s president will be there, the party takes an abrupt turn. Because he’s a fan of opera, the party includes an appearance by a famous American soprano. The novel is set in an unnamed South American country at a party thrown in honor of a visiting Japanese businessman. It won the Orange Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Bel Cantoīel Canto is not Patchett’s first novel but it’s the one that brought her wide readership. Where to Start With Ann Patchett Books 1. She understands how to let characters reveal themselves over time and it’s a great pleasure to just sink into the world of a Patchett novel. Though I have enjoyed Patchett’s nonfiction, I think of her primarily as a novelist. In 2011, she opened Parnassus Books in Nashville. She has since published seven more novels and three works of nonfiction. After attending Sarah Lawrence College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Patchett published her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars, in 1992. She was born in Los Angeles in 1963 and grew up in Nashville. Patchett is an award-winning novelist and bookstore owner. But did you know Patchett has a backlist full of other great titles? And that she’s also written nonfiction? Whether you’re a Patchett newbie or a fan looking for more of her books, this guide to Ann Patchett books will help you figure out where to start reading her work. Not only is she a bestselling, award-winning novelist who just released a new book (the wonderful The Dutch House), she owns a popular Nashville independent bookstore, Parnassus Books. If you’re a book lover, you’ve probably heard of Ann Patchett.

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